


Twenty Bucks to Change Your Life

by storyspinner70



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M, Online Dating, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23658121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyspinner70/pseuds/storyspinner70
Summary: Written for this prompt from the SPN Meant to Be Challenge:Hutch Lonigan knew what he was going to get his mother for her birthday – a man So Hutch walked into the Yellow Rose Matchmakers agency with all his savings and demanded the best man he could get for nine dollars!
Relationships: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Comments: 13
Kudos: 164
Collections: SPN Meant to Be Master Collection





	Twenty Bucks to Change Your Life

_Online dating is the way to go in the 21st century, and Jamey Ackles is determined to drag his grumpy single dad into the present - one way or another._

**Twenty Bucks to Change Your Life**

Jared Padalecki was tired. Like bone deep, sleep probably wouldn’t even help him even if he slept fifteen hours tired. Worn out.

He’d always known that he wanted to help people in his life. He’d tried a lot of things in his life, but it wasn’t until he started _Perpetual Ties_ that he’d found his spot. He and his best friend Chad had started the dating service three years ago and had many success stories that kept them going.

Then Chad got lonely and made his own _PT_ profile under an assumed name. He met someone three months later and they stuck. He was off on his honeymoon and Jared was taking care of _PT_ by himself for the first time in years.

Not that it was all that much work, really. Just some heavy lifting on the front end. He had to make sure everyone passed a background check and hosted a skype chat with them to get a handle on their personality and what they wanted out of their matches. After that, he kept tabs on how they were doing and looked over any content that had been flagged by the system or another user.

It wasn’t normally a problem, but Valentine’s Day always lead to an influx of new customers from January to March, and Jared was feeling it. He flipped idly through the last small batch of new signups and snagged one that had caught his eye more than once.

The profile was for Jensen Ackles, age 50. His picture was clearly an old one. Though it was gorgeous, he didn’t look at day over 35. 40 maybe if you paid close attention to the smile lines around his eyes. Which Jared hadn’t been. At all. Really.

That, a couple weird answers when it came to his job ( _Business Man_ wasn’t really a good enough answer for what he did for a living) and what he was looking for in a match (which was, apparently, someone to make him less grumpy and to play with his son) and Jared figured he might need a little help fleshing things out to get better responses.

 _Really._

He’d emailed a couple of times but hadn’t heard anything back and even though Mr. Ackles had paid the first month’s fee via PayPal right away, he had to finish the background check and face to face interview before his profile showed up on their site.

Jared glanced at his watch and figured what the hell. He dialed the guy’s number. Maybe he’d get lucky this time.

“Ackles,” he said and Jared was silent for just a split second too long. He hadn’t expected such a deep smooth voice. “Hello?”

Jared cleared his throat. “Hello. I’m looking for Jensen Ackles.”

“This is he.” Jensen didn’t sound too pleased about it, either.

“Hi,” Jared repeated then shook himself. “I’m Jared with _Perpetual Ties_. We got your profile all set up, but there’s still a couple steps before we can start finding you matches. Do you have a few minutes for me now?”

There was silence for a few moments. “What kind of profile?”

“The one you filled out when you signed up for our dating service,” Jared said patiently.

“Dating…” Jensen stopped speaking abruptly then Jared could hear him yelling down the hall. “Jamey! I want to talk to you! Get in here!”

Jared was starting to understand why Jensen’s profile had seemed a little strange.

“What, Dad. I’m busy!”

“Guess who I’m on the phone with right now.”

“I don’t know, Dad, who?” Jamey said impatiently.

“A guy from a dating service who says he needs more information about my profile,” Jensen said.

“Huh. Way to go Dad. Maybe you won’t be so grumpy and alone from now on.”

 _Yahtzee_ , Jared thought. _He was definitely the one that filled out the profile._

“Uh huh,” Jensen said. “I’ll deal with you later.”

“Uh, you think grandma would like a sudden visit?” Jared heard Jamey ask.

“Get in there,” Jensen said, exasperated. “And no more games, you hear me?”

“For how long?” Jamey cried.

“It depends on how much this is going to cost me.”

“It was only $19.95,” Jamey called down the hall.

“What the…” Jensen muttered. “Where did he get…”

“PayPal,” Jared broke in. “He paid with PayPal. Obviously, we’ll refund you if you don’t want to keep the service.”

“What did my profile say?”

“Well, just the normal stuff, that you’re a business man that works too much. Um, you’re single and looking, “really tall” and are 50 years old…”

“What?” Jensen broke in. “I’m not 50. I’m 40!”

“Oh, well, that might not be an old picture then.” Jensen was muttering to himself and Jared did his best to soothe him. “You know how kids are. They think you’re old if you’re 20.”

“Alright. What else did he say?”

“Let’s start from the top. How tall are you?”

“6’1 1/2.”

“Nice. You _are_ tall.”

“I’ll send my parents your compliments,” Jensen said dryly.

“Snarky sense of humor,” Jared said, “let me mark that down.”

Jensen laughed.

“40 years old. What business exactly, Mr. Business man?”

“I’m an architect.”

“Oooh, nice. Are you looking for men, women, other or any?”

“What did Jamey put?” Jensen asked.

“He checked other then put anyone in the notes.”

Jensen snorted. “That boy.”

“So, men, women other or any?” Jared held his breath.

“I guess I never considered anyone but women before,” Jensen mused.

Jared’s heart plummeted.

“Maybe that’s my problem,” he said. “Maybe it should be any.”

Jared beamed then felt stupid sitting in a dark empty office grinning like a loon. He cleared his throat. “The next one is… Well. Okay, you should get a kick out of this one.”

“Oh god,” Jensen said.

“Role preference,” Jared nearly whispered, trying not to laugh. “Jamey put Daddy.”

Jensen groaned then went quiet for a beat too long. He took a deep breath then said, “I mean, he’s not wrong.”

Jared was having trouble breathing. “Because…” he started. “Because you’re Jamey’s daddy,” he said, looking desperately for clarification.

“That too,” Jensen said, his voice deeper than it had been.

“Oh,” Jared breathed. “Oh god.”

“You okay?”

“Nope,” Jared said. “Not in the slightest.”

Jensen cackled. “So what would the next steps have been?” Jensen asked. “What do I get for my twenty bucks?”

“I generally set up a video call so I can get a better feel for the applicant,” Jared said.

“I’ve got time,” Jensen said.

Jared didn’t know what to say for way too long. “I, sure. _Sure._ Let me just turn my camera on.”

A moment later, they were studying each other in the narrow screens of their phones.

“Not an old picture then,” Jared breathed.

“No?”

“No.”

“What do I do if I want to go out with someone I meet through your service?”

“You just… You just ask them out.”

Jensen just hummed.

“Did you… Did you want to try it for the month? You already paid, you know.” Jared wondered quickly about the ethical ramifications of making sure Jensen got no matches but rejected that as a bit too far.

“Sure, why not. I don’t think I’ll need it longer than that.”

“Someone that looks like you? I doubt you need it a week.”

“Especially since I already met someone.”

“You…” Jared stopped and stared at Jensen who raised both brows and smirked.

“You, Jared. I’m talking about you.”

“I did figure that out on my own, Jensen,” Jared said in exasperation. “I was just… I didn’t expect things to turn out this way tonight, that’s all.”

“Me either. I was straight and single about twenty minutes ago.”

“And now?” Jared asked tentatively.

“Now we see how it goes,” he replied.

“Yeah,” Jared parroted. “Now we see.”


End file.
